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Letter: Government should stay out of union campaign

August 21, 2007

Dear Editor,

Why are your government officials getting involved in a union campaign? I read where they said a union would be bad for its employees and the town. In the next sentence they talked about how the union workers got better benefits and wages.

So how do they come to the conclusion that this would be bad? Was A.T.R. union, was Whirlpool union, was the furniture place there union, was KB Toys union? No. How many other jobs were lost in Danville that were not union?

These benefits that the union workers get are not just given to them. They are negotiated and won. What did those employees who were laid off get outside of unemployment?

When the unions were at their strongest, that is where vacation days, personal days, insurance, 40-hour work weeks, paid holidays, overtime pay and pensions came from - not because big business gave them out of the goodness of their hearts.

Now you see the decline in union numbers across the nation, and what is happening is that we are losing pensions and benefits every day, and the difference between hourly workers' and CEOs' pay is more than 400 times. The workers keep losing their benefits and pensions and upper management is getting bigger and bigger bonuses even when companies are in bankruptcies.

Again, I have to ask why your government officials are getting involved in a union campaign that is trying to improve the lives of workers in Danville. Do they want to see stagnant and low wages with no protection or benefits in case of a layoff?

Jerry Carney

IUE/CWA

Union Safety and Health Rep.

Lawrenceburg

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